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Dominion Energy plans to complete SCANA buyout, NYSE filing says

Avery G. Wilks, The State
Published 2:43 p.m. ET Dec. 27, 2018

FILE- In this June 13, 2014 file photo, construction continues on a new nuclear reactor at Plant Vogtle power plant in Waynesboro, Ga. The delays in the nuclear industry are adding up, adding hundreds of millions of dollars to already expensive projects. The latest announcement came from SCANA Corp., which expects a year-long delay in the completion of its two reactors under construction in South Carolina. That announcement raised questions about whether an identical plant under construction by the same builders in Georgia will also see expensive delays.(Photo: John Bazemore, AP)

COLUMBIA, SC — Shares of stock in SCANA Corp. will become unavailable for trading on Jan. 2, the surest sign yet that Virginia-based Dominion Energy plans to finalize its proposed buyout of South Carolina’s largest homegrown power company.

A filing from the New York Stock Exchange Thursday indicates Dominion expects to seal the deal on Jan. 1.

That would be nearly a year to the day after Dominion announced its agreement to buy SCANA— the Cayce-based power company at the center of a legal and political firestorm over a failed nuclear construction project.

Companies are required to give the NYSE notice of at least three days before closing mergers or acquisitions. The NYSE filing indicates Dominion and SCANA have done that, with SCANA stock set to be de-listed on Jan. 2.

Dominion has been expected to close the deal since the S.C. Public Service Commission’s Dec. 14 ruling approving the SCANA buyout. But the company has not yet publicly confirmed it will do so, saying it still is reviewing the PSC’s lengthy written ruling.

Environmentalists have filed an appeal of the PSC’s decision, but that appeal is unlikely to derail the buyout.

Dominion announced it planned to buy SCANA on Jan. 3, offering 0.669 shares of Dominion stock for every SCANA share. Based on Dominion’s share price late Thursday morning, the deal valued SCANA shares at about $48.40.

Dominion also offered partial refunds and rate cuts for customers of SCANA’s electric subsidiary, SCE&G, who collectively have paid more than $2 billion in the form of higher power bills for SCE&G’s failed effort to build more two nuclear reactors at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in Fairfield County.

Dominion has amended its offer twice since then. The latest revision, approved by the PSC this month, would cut the monthly electric bills of SCE&G customers by about $22, on average. However, those customers still will pay about $2.3 billion more — or roughly $5 a month — for the unfinished and abandoned reactors plant over the next 20 years.

The deal also will impact SCANA’s nearly 6,000 full- and part-time employees. Dominion chief executive Tom Farrell has said “front-line” employees, such as linemen, likely will keep their jobs.

But administrative workers in human resources, customer service, accounting or other white-collar positions could lose their jobs or be relocated. Dominion has said it will pay all of SCANA’s employees through July 1, 2021, even if they are fired.

The company has pledged to keep SCE&G’s headquarters in Cayce but has not yet named the utility’s next CEO. Farrell has said the job could go to a current SCANA or Dominion employee.